Australia have exacted revenge on New Zealand for last year’s heartbreaking Pacific Cup final with a 22-10 win that propels the Kangaroos into the decider of this year’s tournament.
Nearly a year after the Kiwis handed Australia their biggest loss, a try-scoring double to Zac Lomax saw off the chance of another defeat before a hostile Christchurch crowd on Sunday.
The Kangaroos still appeared below their best, with Angus Crichton notably bombing an early try and new halfback Mitch Moses spraying a kick and then putting a line dropout out on the full.
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Regardless, the win over an admittedly understrength New Zealand helps vindicate a raft of changes made to the Australian team following last year’s 30-0 debacle in Hamilton.
Australia will meet the winner of New Zealand’s match against Tonga in the Pacific Cup final at Sydney’s CommBank Stadium on November 10.
The Kiwis were spirited as injuries took players including Jahrome Hughes, Moses Leota, Dylan Brown and Ronaldo Mulitalo out of Stacey Jones’s first game as head coach.
But the Kangaroos found success attacking their left side, where defensively weaker players Matt Timoko and Will Warbrick lined up next to makeshift five-eighth Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad.
Lomax had both his tries on the back of raids down that edge, first making good on Tom Trbojevic’s line break and then latching onto a Harry Grant flick pass midway through the second half.
The Kiwis threatened to make a game of it when Warbrick pegged one back on Lomax and reduced the deficit to six points as the final 15 minutes approached.
But down the same right side, fullback Dylan Edwards showed no sign of his troublesome knee injury as he dummied through the line and passed on to a flying Moses, who sealed the result.
Despite a career-best season, Crichton came up with one of the more staggering bombed tries in recent memory when he strolled over in the opening minutes.
Crichton had juggled Tom Dearden’s flat pass before planting the ball down to silence the Kiwi crowd after only four minutes.
But replays revealed the second-rower had dropped the ball only centimetres above the grass without a defender on him.
Lindsay Collins helped his Sydney Roosters teammate save face by scoring the first points.
The big prop spotted Keano Kini defending in the frontline and burst through both the fullback and Phoenix Crossland on a 40-metre gallop to the line.
On his fairytale return from rugby league retirement, Kiwis fan favourite Shaun Johnson kicked superbly all afternoon as rival halfback Moses endured a mixed game with the boot.
Johnson forced back-to-back line dropouts with his short kicking game to signal a period of Kiwi dominance early in the second half after having a hand in the hosts’ opener.
The halfback sent the play to the right where Isaiah Papali’i and Kini each came up with quick passes to help Jamayne Isaako over.